East wa East
by Monoshiri
Summary: Team 7's first voyage overseas goes badly wrong when Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura get caught up in a foreign civil war...and drag both friends and enemies in with them.  Gen, action, some pairings hinted at.


**East wa East**

_Part 1: Setting Out_

* * *

"Well, well, Jiraiya, long time no see. What's the occasion, that it could drag you away from the ladies' onsen when they're having that "Fire Country Beauty Pageant Contestants Bathe Free!" special on?"

Carefully ignoring his old team mate's sarcastic, barbed half-smile, Jiraiya helped himself to a cup of tea, then leveled a glare across the desk at Tsunade, newly-inaugurated Hokage of Konoha. "It wasn't your sorry excuse for a sense of humour, that's for sure. I heard through the grapevine you just assigned Naruto's team to some big, symbolic mission."

"That I did."

"You've only been Hokage a couple of weeks and you've already gone completely off your head. That clutz Naruto..."

"...is perfect for the job," Tsunade interrupted him calmly. "You know the Westerlands have re-established contact with us? One of their biggest industrial leaders is interested in setting up shop in the northern mountains of Fire Country, near the border with Wind. I don't think I need to explain to you what's at stake with _that_possibility."

Jiraiya just stared at her blankly over his teacup.

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "You never did have a head for the nitty-gritty of economics. Put simply, the man in question wants to set up a low-emitting mining operation in the inhospitable parts of the area, protected by our ninja, with dividends going to both Suna and Konoha in terms of trade and civilian job creation. The man's supposed to be a good bet for a Westerlander, very fair, understands our traditions. Needless to say, both our daimyo and theirs areinterested in keeping him happy."

"I think I see where you're going with this, but go on."

"Anyway, he has this daughter, and you know Westerlanders, they're very brash, so I thought if anyone could handle her company well, while at the same time not seeming too, well, foreign, it'd be Team 7. Besides, she took one look at Sasuke and well, you know how it always goes."

"Oh, I'll bet that Sakura kid will lovethat," Jiraiya mumbled, feeling a pang of sympathy for the girl despite himself. "Not to mention I don't imagine Sasuke is going to be feeling particularly social after that business with his older brother."

"Nevertheless, you know how princess types are," Tsunade said with a faint smirk, "they just won't be denied. So they're escorting her on the ship ride back to the Westerlands, with her father's bles-_I was working on those papers, you oaf!" _That was as far as she'd gotten before Jiraiya snorted a stream of tea out his nostrils all across her desktop, staring at her in bug-eyed shock.

"You, hah, you're kidding, right? I thought you were going to have them escort her around sightseeing...you didn't just tell me you sent Kakashi and his team west, did you?"

"Technically, it is east, Jiraiya, and the girl wanted to go _home_," Tsunade said frostily as she tried to wipe some of her mission reports clean and failed, "and would you like to explain why you just...?"

"The Westerlands have gone to war again."

Tsunade froze, halfway into trying to blot the runny page of a D-rank report. "What?_"_

"Just yesterday. I got it from my intelligence network...one of the informal ones, a guy on the east coast who does translation work on my books. _He_claims the Wilds on the west coast started it by breaking a truce, but given his bias and how unreliable some of their news agencies can be, I wouldn't put it past the Ecclesiasts to...god, Tsunade, lie down, you look like you're about to be sick."

"Jiraiya," the Hokage said in as level a voice as she could manage, "Are you positiveabout this? Because you've just told me that the twenty-year civil war that was the _reason _we've cut ties between the Westerlands and ourselves—the war that completely devastated their economy, killed hundreds of thousands of their own people, and practically toppled what government they had—has reignited, and that I've sent three genin and my foremost jounin straight towards it, unprepared and uninformed."

Jiraiya sat silently for a moment, debating with himself, as Tsunade bent forward over her desk. Finally, speaking like a man who hates himself for doing so, he said slowly, "You remember what happened the last time they started doing this, right?"

"Of course I do," she murmured, staring without seeing at the runny ink detailing the retrieval of a nobleman's favourite lap dog. "The east coast simply blockaded all the trade routes except the authorized ones and tightly controlled all entry to their side of the country…but the west coast killed or expelled all foreigners and bombarded all incoming overseas transports, whether they contained some Westerlanders or not."

The two Sannin went silent again, staring at the desk that had long been their old teacher's, each with their thoughts. Finally Tsunade spoke again. "Hokage...how can I call myself that? I send ninja to missions that could be the death of them every single day."

"Now ask me why I didn't want the job," Jiraiya said dryly, then caught himself; Tsunade, however, seemed not to hear him.

"But I can't stand it...that stupid kid with his stupid face and his big mouth...and I healed that moron Uchiha, heaven knows why, he's got a deathwish, but that Haruno girl seemed so happy when he woke up again...but I can't do anything...and if that fool Kakashi gets himself killed by a pack of thugs, I swear I'll..."

Jiraiya reached across the table and closed his big hands over Tsunade's manicured ones. She stopped mumbling and looked up at him, dull-eyed.

"If this is your idea of a good time to hit on me, I won't stop at breaking a few ribs, Jiraiya."

"Oh ye of little faith," Jiraiya said with a faint smile. "The village may still be putting things back together, but you've still got a Sannin at your disposal. I'm not meeting my next spy contact for another three weeks."

Tsunade said nothing, but her gaze was no longer dull. After another long moment, she turned her hands inside his and gently squeezed his fingers. "Jiraiya...you..."

And that was when someone kicked the office door down.

* * *

"This is so totally awesome!"

Marcia Oglethorpe smiled brightly and squeezed Sasuke's hand, seemingly unaware of the young ninja's discomfort, as they watched Naruto climb up on the ship's rail and throw his arms up in the air, whooping. "He's so upbeat! It's adorable, he's just like a little boy, isn't he, Miss Sakura?"

"He_is _a little boy," Sakura muttered glumly from the other side of Sasuke. If the circumstances had been different, she might have been right up there on the railing with Naruto, enjoying the swift pace of the steam-powered boat and the beautiful sun-bright sea...but quite frankly, with every ounce of her ninja discipline she was fighting the strong desire to do grievous bodily harm to their client. She kept telling herself over and over again that if it weren't for Marcia's _totally inappropriate_ fixationon Sasuke, she wouldn't mind the older girl at all, she was pretty and good-natured and bouncy and a bit dim and and and _she'd been touching Sasuke-kun ever since she set eyes on him, the little blonde__**hussy**_, Inner Sakura hissed as she bubbled up with a vengeance. Sakura ferociously tamped her down and comforted herself with the fact that Sasuke was obviously deeply unhappy with being clung to, petted, and tugged this way and that, with his usual killing glare having no effect on their oblivious client.

"Well, I know _that, _but he's so cheerful all the time! Carefree, you know, somebody who isn't weighed down by any concerns. It must be so nice to have a life like that," Marcia said with a complacent smile.

Sakura promptly flushed all thoughts of Marcia's general likeability down the drain and opened her mouth to yell the older girl out; before she could, however, Sasuke abruptly tugged his hand out of Marcia's grip and said gruffly, "Excuse me, we have to go have a conference with our master. We'll be arriving at the docks at Angel City in a couple of hours, and we need further details from him on the mission parameters once we get there."

"Oh, poo," Marcia pouted. "But you will come back up to the main decks, won't you? I love your company, you're so adorable, all of you! I'd heard people in the East were all silent and creepy..."

"Heh, yeah, if you're named Sasuke, maybe," Naruto hooted cheerfully from his perch. "And hey, ya bastard, what's this crap about a conference with Kakashi-sensei, you know he just ditched us so he could read his por-OW, Sakura-chaaaan, that hurt!"

Sakura manhandled Naruto down off the rails and dragged him quickly towards the ship's hold. Sasuke turned to follow them, avoiding Marcia's attempt at a playful tug on his armwarmer. "We'll be back."

"I'll be waiting for you," Marcia sang gaily after him. Sakura thought she saw Sasuke pull a face in disgust; Inner Sakura rejoiced.

* * *

Kakashi was waiting for them down in the hold, along with a number of people that put the lie to the idea of a private conference.

The Oglethorpes' dozen or so non-household servants, porters and housekeepers and such, were allotted sparse but relatively comfortable sleeping arrangements there, although that meant sleeping next to Marcia's horses, which she apparently never went anywhere without. Their stable-keeper, a dark-skinned girl a little younger than Naruto, nodded at the ninjas as they came in. It had rankled on the kids at the start of the trip, especially Sakura, that the Oglethorpes viewed the Konoha escort squad as pretty much a higher class of servant, and since they weren't all needed as round-the-clock bodyguards, the remainder slept in the hold; however, Kakashi had settled in with the servants and crew with surprising ease, occasionally filling in a hand for a poker game with the porters (which he always made certain to lose at) and chatting languidly with the civilian captain and his men. After their first night, Team 7 figured out that Kakashi's method was the best way for a stress-free trip, Marcia's fondness for Sasuke aside.

"Oh, so you kids came down for a break, eh?" One of the laundrywomen chuckled as she put down her cards. "Well, old Scarecrow here'll be with you in a minute, as soon as I've got my share. Straight flush, haha!"

"You win again, Prudence-san." Kakashi affected a look of comic despair, hard to manage with only one eye visible, but the two women and one man he was playing against chuckled sympathetically anyway. "Haa, looks like I'm on the hook for washing socks again tonight. Mind if I go have a talk with my kids?"

"Just don't try to skip out," Prudence teased him as he rose. Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura made themselves a spot in a corner near the horses, and Kakashi joined them there.

"Any news?" Sasuke asked him softly, expression intent.

"Hm, not so much right now, not if I'm going to keep up my jolly dunce persona, but I have noticed a few of the crewmen getting a bit jittery the closer we get to land. It could be nothing, old nerves, but the west coast does have a bad reputation, so if this escort trip goes hairy then it'll be once we land."

"I thought so."

Naruto was fiddling with a piece of hay; suddenly he spoke up. "Hey Sasuke, until we get there woulda mind bein' a little less, y'know, _cuddly _with that Marcia girl? I mean she's nice and all, kinda dumb though—"

"Pot, kettle," Kakashi murmured. Naruto ignored him and carried on, "but it's _upsetting_Sakura-chan, you bein' all friendly with the client and stuff, and if you keep upsettin' Sakura-chan I'll mash in your fa—hey, Sakura-chan, how come you're crackin' your knuckles like thaOW!"

Sasuke huffed disgust as Sakura made a valiant effort to rearrange Naruto's features. Kakashi pried the two of them apart and shook a finger at them.

"Now, Naruto, Sasuke's doing his best to keep the client happy...although I must say, Sasuke, to the observant it's easy to tell it's taxing your patience."

"_I _know you're only letting her be all over you for the good of the mission, Sasuke," Sakura assured him, surreptitiously giving the confused Naruto a good, hard shove as she spoke. "It doesn't bother me even a little bit, I promise!"

"Seriously? 'Cause I'm pretty sure I could hear you grinding your teeth from all the way down in the stalls."

Team 7 turned as one to stare at the stable keeper, who stared back at them, her expression one of open interest. Sakura turned a little red as she spoke. "You—ahaha—you've been listening to us?"

"And do you know what happens to people who eavesdrop on ninja?" Kakashi asked her mildly.

The girl shrugged. "Nothing, as far as I know. I just wanted to tell ya that Miss Marcia doesn't mean any real harm, she's just like that with every boy she meets that she thinks is cute. Kinda compulsive, if that's the right word. Don't worry, she'll ditch you as soon as she sees another cute boy, Mister Sasuke, take my word for it. She'll probably be nice about it even."

"I appreciate the information," Sasuke muttered, although the line of his shoulders relaxed ever so slightly. The girl grinned.

"That's good. Nice talkin' to ya finally, I'da done it sooner but I've been busy with the horses. Oh yeah, Mister Kakashi?"

"Hm?"

"Mister Laglise the porter knows you're losin' at cards on purpose, he just can't figure out how. 'Cause of that, he wants to play a free game of Cripple Mr. Yam with you sometime, just to see how good a card player ya are if you're not tryin' to lose."

Sakura and Sasuke both blinked and glanced at Kakashi, whose face remained impassive. Naruto, however, grinned and got to his feet to go after her.

"Hey, sis, we never got your name?"

The girl turned back to him. "Oh, sorry! I know yours but you don't know mine. Name's Addie Rideout."

"Nice to meetcha! Hee, anybody who can get one on Kakashi-sensei's alright by me!"

Addie stared at him for a moment, then laughed outright. "You're a real funny guy, Mister Naruto."

"Ahh, you don't have to call me Mister anything...can I see one of your horses, like y'know, the big grey guy?"

"Sure, I'll introduce you two, see if he likes you."

Sakura looked after the two of them as they ambled off, Naruto grinning widely. "Well, Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi'd produced Icha Icha Paradise and had his eye on the pages. "Mm? Oh, the Rideout girl? I don't think she's any sort of threat, just...tactless. That's probably why she's working with the animals, excessive honesty isn't really an appreciated trait, is it?"

"I guess not...and it's good Naruto's found somebody he likes on this trip who can put up with him. Right, Sasuke-kun?"

Sakura glanced over at the Uchiha prodigy. He'd steepled his fingers over his mouth and nose again, but she was sure she caught the tail end of a faint smile; that sight alone, even if it probably wasn't for her, made her determined not to lose her temper over Marcia's clueless crush for the rest of the trip.

* * *

"I'm sorry, I must not have heard you correctly. Sasuke-kun has gone _where?"_

"The Westerlands, Orochimaru-sama, on a sort of goodwill mission with a heavy industrialist's daughter," Kabuto repeated carefully, eyes trained on his master's hunched form as he felt with his chakra for the slightest sign of rage or killing intent. The snake sannin's attention, by contrast, seemed entirely on his bandaged, useless arms lying immobile on the blankets in front of him. His breathing was slightly laboured already, a hiss between pale lips. Kabuto briefly took some of his attention away from Orochimaru to calculate how much time they had before having to effect the container transfer. He cut his estimate of two months in half, just as Orochimaru raised his slitted golden eyes to him.

"That nation is highly unstable at the best of times. It has been so since its inception. And since it is impossible to circle around the continent by south or north and go to the east coast unless one wishes to contend with icebergs, then they must be landing on the west coast, a region which, if you recall, Kabuto, is inhabited by anarchy-loving madmen who practice a most primitive form of ninjutsu. The only people they despise above their more civilized brethren from the east are foreigners."

"Well, Sasuke-kun _is_an Uchiha, he ought to be able to manage himself," Kabuto said patiently.

"Have you made much study of the nations beyond the boundary of shinobi lands, Kabuto?" Orochimaru's voice was almost sarcastic: Kabuto quickly altered his tone and stance accordingly.

"My apologies, my expertise ismainly medical. I haven't forgotten that the Westerlanders fear those who wield the doujutsu eye techniques above all."

"As they should," Orochimaru said with grim satisfaction, "but I do not trust my future container's welfare to the whims of a pack of uncivilized brutes." His gaze fixed on the four figures kneeling in the shadows behind Kabuto. "So we will take steps."

"Do you want us to bring him back, Orochimaru-sama?" asked one of them.

"Not yet. I have told you, Sakon-kun, that we must wait until Sasuke-kun is ready to come to me of his own volition..."

"Forgive me, Orochimaru-sama."

"There is no need, that time will come quite soon. No, I wish you to follow him, track his movements. Do not let him or his squad see you; doubtless he is still traveling with the Kyuubi whelp and the upstart Kakashi, although that girl with him is no threat at all. It's Kakashi who you'll have the most trouble avoiding. If Sasuke-kun is in immediate danger, however, do whatever you must to avert it."

"Yes sir!" Four heads bowed in unison. Orochimaru nodded approvingly; Kabuto tapped his lower lip with a finger thoughtfully.

"Now the only question is, how will we get them there so they won't be too far behind his movements?"

"Easily. It won't require much disguise, nothing on the level of," Orochimaru's face darkened, "their...previous...mission. And there is a barge leaving from Wave Country tomorrow that performs illegal voyages with labourers seeking employment in the mid-Westerlands areas. That will be your transportation."

The Sound Four bowed once more and vanished into the gloom of Oto's tunnels. Orochimaru resumed staring at his limp hands again; then a thought seemed to occur to him.

"The Eye of God..."

"You feel you ought to have warned them of it?" Kabuto asked with a faint smile. "Kidoumaru or Tayuya may have heard of that myth..."

"Hm, no, I severely doubt they would have occasion to encounter it in the West. The Ecclesiast who had it was supposed to have died decades ago. However..." A slow, amused smile curled over Orochimaru's lips. "...however, heh, just imagine if Sasuke-kun or that Kakashi were to meet someone with the Eye...the versatile Eye of the Mirror Wheel against the unstoppable Eye of God, I would give a great deal to see such a battle."

"It would be a rather amusing diversion, wouldn't it," Kabuto murmured, his attention abruptly elsewhere: at the moment he had no time for speculation, although as always he stored all this information away to be analyzed later. "Now, Orochimaru-sama, it's high time I changed those bandages again."

* * *

TBC... 


End file.
